


Buoy

by Caro (thestarsexist)



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Community: picfor1000, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-28
Updated: 2007-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-16 22:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestarsexist/pseuds/Caro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every time he dreams, it's a little clearer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buoy

**Author's Note:**

> For slodwick's Fifth annual Picture is Worth a Thousand Words challenge. Big thanks to scribblinlenore and celli for the last minute beta services.

Peter drowns when he's twelve. His family is on vacation, and it's a bright, sunny day. Nathan's in the water, swimming effortlessly despite the chill, too early in the season for the water to have warmed up much. He's going away next week, joining the Navy, and this has been a point of contention between him and their father. Peter doesn't really understand the argument, only knows that Nathan is leaving and won't be back for a long time. He thinks about this as he runs towards the water, feet flying beneath him.

He realizes his mistake the minute he hits the water. It's too cold, too deep, too unexpected, and he panics, all the swimming instruction he's had disappearing in the rush of fear, and then he's under, the water swallowing him up. He doesn't know how long he descends, doesn't remember it, except then Nathan's there, strong arms pulling him up, a steady voice in his ear saying, "Hold on, Peter. I've got you. I've got you."

***

Peter comes into the picture pretty late. The Petrellis are an ongoing story, one where his father's shady character has already made their mother distant by the time he's born, made Nathan seem like a grownup even back then. Peter upsets the balance, changes the shape of the air around him. His mother and brother both swoop in to protect him, trying to mold him into something that bears no hint of his father.

***

He waits in the police precinct, still covered in blood. They took Isaac away a while ago, but no one's charged him yet. A few cops give him the fisheye, but the Petrelli name still carries some clout, so they let him wait without harassing him. Open and shut case, the detective on the scene said. Two guys fighting over a girl, someone pulls out a gun, someone gets shot, an old story. Isaac already copped to pulling the trigger.

No one notices how the blood stains Peter's hands.

It's late when Nathan arrives. Outside, Peter hears the clamor of the press; someone alerted the media. He expects Nathan to be angry, at the attention, at the way Peter disappeared, at having to come get Peter out of jail once again, another girl dead that Peter couldn't save. But Nathan just pulls Peter into his arms and says, "Thank God."

***

Every time he dreams, it's a little clearer. He's in the center of the city, traffic stopped all around him. He sees Claire, the sad little cheerleader from Texas. Sees other people, faces he doesn't recognize but still feels like he knows. They're all screaming, but he can't hear their words. There's only one voice he can hear, only one he can make out. Nathan, coming towards him, arms outstretched. And then, it all ends in a flash of orange and gold.

Even his father never left a swath of destruction this wide.

***

At his mother's insistence, he spends the night in Westchester. She fusses over him, plying him with food until he claims exhaustion. His old room is the same, same comforter, same sheets he grew up with. Only Peter's changed. He's become unrecognizable; the powers that he'd been so convinced were a godsend now seem like a curse. He's afraid of who he's becoming, what he's going to do. He's already been responsible for the death of one person he loves; he doesn't know how he would survive the death of...

After the third time he wakes up, he gets out of bed. He pads down the hall to the room that Nathan's staying in tonight.

"You have to leave," he says, shaking Nathan awake. "Take Mom and Heidi. Leave New York."

"Peter?" Nathan scrubs the sleep from his eyes. "What's this about?"

"I'm going to destroy everything, Nathan. You have to leave."

"Peter, think about what you're saying. Psychic visions. That's what you're trying to get me to believe."

"Does it make any less sense than everything else? What we've seen? Nathan, I flew. I..." he falters. He doesn't want to give voice to this, but Nathan's always been his confessor. "I made myself invisible. Simone got shot because I was invisible and Isaac was trying to shoot me."

"It's not your fault," Nathan says, able as always to hear the things Peter isn't saying.

"How can you say that? If it hadn't been for me, if I hadn't gone there..."

"Why did you go there?"

"Because Isaac—there are men who are trying to stop us, hurt us. He led them to me."

"So you had to stop him. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Except Simone got hurt."

"If the choice was between you and her, I'm okay with it," Nathan says.

"It's not okay!" Peter wills him to understand. "Simone was...next time it could be you. Don't you see? You're going to die. I'm going to kill you."

"I don't believe that."

"You have to. Nathan, I've seen it. Isaac saw it too. Maybe it would have been better if he..."

Nathan grips his shoulder, tight enough to hurt. "Don't finish that sentence."

"If I can't figure out how to stop this, if..."

"You will. If this—if what you're saying is true, you'll stop it."

"How? I can't do this alone."

"You won't." Nathan's arm snakes around his shoulder, pulling him close. Peter exhales, resting his forehead on Nathan's shoulder. Grief and guilt have left him drained, and he can feel his body lose the fight to exhaustion, but he's still afraid to let go.

"You have to promise to leave," he whispers, even as his eyes flutter shut.

"I'm never going to promise to leave you, Peter," Nathan says, pushing him down on the bed, blankets covering him. "So we're just going to have to figure out how to fix this."

"Okay," Peter says, succumbing to sleep.

Later, when he wakes from another dream, it's Nathan's arms around him, a promise in his ear. "It's okay. I've got you."

  



End file.
